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Clinical information

DIAGNOSIS:

Melanoma in situ

COMMENTS:

Melanoma in situ is hallmarked by the presence of highly atypical melanomas restricted to the epidermis and epithelial compartment of adnexae (most connoly hair follicles). The atypical emlanocytes are located at the dermoepidermal junction as nests and/or lentiginous arrengements (solitary melanocytes lying next to each other and thus replacing most of the basa;le epidermal keratinocytes. In addition, there is usually spread of the solitary atypical melanocytes into upper parts of the epidermis, including the granular layer and stratum corneum. This phenomenon is known as pagetoid spread, or ascent. The ascending atypical melanocytes in melanoma in situ tend to retain vesicular nuclei and copious cytoplasm and are also present at the edges of the lesions, where cellularity of the junctional component is less. This is in contrast to ascent seen in some naevi (Spitz naevus: Reed naevus; acral naevus; traumatized naevus and some others) where ascending naevus cells are generally smaller than junctional ones, and ascent is limited to areas where junctional cellularity is high.

Ascent should not be confused with transepidermal elimination of entire cell nests: whis latter phenomenon is seen in some naevi (and melanomas) with many large nests, and has no diagnostic utility.

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I believe this website may be of interest to you. It is an Open Educational Resource, containing a large collection of digitized histologic slides with explanatory films and other materials, aimed at surgical pathologists, dermatopathologist and pathologists in training. This site is entirely based on consultation materials of professor Wolter Mooi, VU University Amsterdam, and can be used free of charge.
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